Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Sick Leave Act 2022 introduced employer-paid, medically-certified, statutory sick leave for the first time in Ireland. From 1 January 2023, the initial statutory entitlement was up to 3 days’ sick leave, which increased to 5 days on 1 January 2024.

The Deputy will be aware that statutory sick leave, and its phased roll-out, was designed in consultation with the Minister for Social Protection and the Social Partners.

A Ministerial decision will be required by the end of this year on the third phase of this plan, including whether to increase the entitlement to 7 days next year. In order to make this decision, and in line with Section 6 of the Sick Leave Act, the Minister must have regard to several key factors, including (and I quote):

“the state of the economy generally, the business environment and national competitiveness; the state of society generally, the public interest and employee well-being; the potential impact of making an order to vary the number of days; data on earnings and labour costs as published by the CSO; the views of employee and employer representative bodies and any other matters considered relevant.”

I am aware that members of the business community have raised concerns around the overall impact of increased labour regulation on the cost of doing business.

Therefore, in order to consider the impact of any potential further increases to sick leave, my Departmental officials are currently exploring with the Economic and Social Research Institute the possibility of capturing more detail on the impact of the changes to statutory sick leave, which could I understand include further analysis of existing Central Statistics Office datasets, as well as potentially gathering new data.

As this work is at an early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on potential outcomes at this point.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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While the issue of false self-employment is complex, and debate often exists as to scale of the problem, there is consensus that it is important to tackle the issue where possible to prevent people being exploited across all sectors, including the building trade.

Ireland has robust mechanisms for the determination of the employment status and the Government is committed to tackling false self-employment wherever it occurs.

Where an issue arises in relation to the employment status of an individual, cases are forwarded to Revenue and/or the Department of Social Protection for investigation, either solely by the recipient, or jointly with the Labour Inspectorate of the Workplace Relations Commission. The WRC may also determine employment status as a preliminary issue at an adjudication hearing.

Following the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF) Subgroup on Employment and Enterprise, in late 2021, a Working Group was formed to examine the issue of false self-employment, identify the real scale of the problem, get reliable data, and put all options on the table in an effort to bring the matter forward. This group is comprised of members from relevant Government Departments together with sectoral and social partner representatives and has undertaken open and constructive discussions concerning false self-employment and thorough consideration of material and evidence presented to the group.

Following the Supreme Court judgement in the Domino’s case, it is now proposed to reconvene the working group in the coming weeks, to consider the implications of that judgement for our employment laws.

The Code of Practice on Determining Employment Status, which is the key guidance document for employers and workers and others in relation to deciding the employment status, is currently being updated by officials in the Department of Social Protection, Revenue Commissioners, and Workplace Relations Commission

In addition, the broader issue of employment status may also be considered by the Employment Law Review Group post establishment.